Namely vs SumTotal

Last Updated:

Our analysts compared Namely vs SumTotal based on data from our 400+ point analysis of HR Management Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Namely Software Tool
SumTotal Software Tool

Product Basics

Namely is a comprehensive software solution designed to streamline HR management tasks, making it particularly well-suited for mid-sized companies seeking to manage their workforce efficiently. This platform stands out for its ability to integrate core HR functions, payroll, benefits administration, and talent management into a single, user-friendly interface. One of the key benefits of Namely is its emphasis on improving employee engagement and compliance, offering tools that facilitate a better workplace culture. Its popular features, such as customizable HR workflows and robust reporting capabilities, allow businesses to tailor the software to their specific needs, enhancing operational efficiency. When compared to similar products, users often highlight Namely's intuitive design and responsive customer support as significant advantages. Pricing for Namely typically follows a per-employee-per-month model, which allows for scalability and flexibility in budget planning, making it a cost-effective choice for companies looking to invest in a comprehensive HR management solution.
read more...
SumTotal is a cloud-based HR Management software catering to mid-sized to large organizations. It packs a comprehensive suite of features covering talent acquisition, learning & development, workforce management, and performance management. Users praise its robust reporting & analytics, rich learning library, and mobile-friendly accessibility. However, the extensive customization options and powerful tools come with a steeper learning curve for administrators. Additionally, SumTotal's potential for high integration costs and higher price point compared to basic solutions make it less suitable for smaller companies. While some users struggle with complex content creation tools and limited instructor-led options, SumTotal shines in its ability to scale and adapt to dynamic needs, making it a strong contender for organizations seeking a feature-rich, customizable HR management platform, especially those with substantial training requirements and a dispersed workforce.

Pros
  • Comprehensive learning library
  • Robust reporting & analytics
  • Scalable for large organizations
  • Mobile-friendly learning
  • Customizable user experience
Cons
  • Steep learning curve for admins
  • Limited instructor-led options
  • Complex content creation tools
  • Potentially high integration costs
  • Pricey for smaller companies
read more...
$9/Employee, Monthly
Free Trial is unavailable →
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
$5/User, Monthly
Free Trial is unavailable →
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
Small 
i
Medium 
i
Large 
i
Small 
i
Medium 
i
Large 
i
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Life Is Good
MacStadium
The Channel Company
Vita Coco
WorkWave
Wunderkind
we're gathering data

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Save Time: Automatically perform common actions, such as approving promotions or pay raises, with workflows. Eliminate the need to assign new users every time an employee leaves or changes positions via role-based approvals assigned to titles rather than individual employees. 
  • Organize Workflows: Create different workflows for different departments, teams and additional groups at company. 
  • Keep Everyone Informed: Stay updated on the latest company news with a central news feed that supports uploading images, GIFs and videos. 
  • Configure Employee Profiles: Choose which fields to include when setting up employee profiles. 
  • Build Org Charts: Set up org charts that show the relationship of every worker. Supports teams of any size, along with multiple leaders. Automatically updates when new hires join, using the relationships stored in the employee database. 
  • Track Events: Stay on top of important dates like holidays, legal deadlines and other events, as the calendar feature has critical dates already included. Download it as an ICS file to sync with an online calendar. Also includes monthly resources and tips on HR topics. 
  • Control Access: Manage access controls for data by assigning user roles and setting permissions so everyone can access the information they need without compromising sensitive data. 
  • Plug In Apps: Integrate with over 50 partner apps from eSignature and international payroll to office management and HR outsourcing. Includes TSheets, Litmos, OneLogin, G Suite, Adobe, Jobvite and Ameriflex. 
read more...
  • Employee Retention: Provide tools for employee development, management and learning practices that encourage employee retention. 
  • Enhanced Productivity: Talent managers can continuously onboarding to speed up overall productivity. 
  • Organizational Stability: Learning-centered employee development builds an agile workforce that is adaptable to changing business environments. 
  • Learning Ecosystem: Invest in research and development on the latest learning trends, which managers can leverage to enhance employees' learning experience. 
  • Talent Engagement: Engage top talent while moving through the recruitment process, understand the workforce, identify the best talent and build a seamless experience for candidates as well as hiring teams. 
  • Enhanced Candidate Experience: Offer smartphone-optimized sites with intelligent and automated interview tools, candidate matching, and an easy-to-use mobile app interface. Keep applicants informed about upcoming interview details via a user dashboard. 
  • Accelerated Time-to-Performance: Seamless onboarding training helps new hires get up to speed quickly. Provide unique company policies and work culture for them to become familiar with the company. 
  • Smooth Role Switch: Access onboarding plans for new roles that include defined goals, new teams and KPI’s that ensure a more seamless transition to new responsibilities. 
  • Robust Manager and Admin Capabilities: Managers and administrators can easily view, schedule, filter, mark up and share reports from a mobile dashboard. Leverage reporting tools, advanced reports and dashboards at a single click. 
  • Informed Compensation Plans: Create smart, data-driven compensation plans according to preset or custom parameters. Real-time performance insights and budget modeling make compensation informed, fair and cost-effective. 
read more...
  • Payroll: Includes:
    • Regulatory compliance, employee access, prebuilt reports, and automatic generation and filing of 1094s and 1095s for ACA.
    • Benefits deduction calculations, so payroll numbers are always updated.
    • Automatic syncing with all HR data.
    • End-of-year reporting like W-2s and 1099s, including tax filing.
  • Time and Attendance: Enables:
    • Data transfer to the payroll module for accurate processing, with options for online time tracking. Offers physical clocks equipped with punch-in methods such as PIN, fingerprint and ID card.
    • Data summary views surrounding hourly workers with the admin dashboard, which shows and uses reports to drill into greater detail on different metrics.
    • Scheduling, managing overtime and performing mass editing actions.
  • Talent Management: Provides onboarding capabilities, eSignature, custom performance reviews, task tracking, configurable employee surveys, goal management, customizable automated review cycles and more. 
  • Benefits Administration: Includes health insurance, FSA and HSA options, life and disability insurance, 401(k), wellness programs, and more. Additional insurance coverage for pets and identity theft available as well. Namely Exchange automatically sends employee elections to Cigna. 
  • HR Analytics: Contains:
    • Metrics on diversity using factors like gender and age.
    • Pay gap analyses for gender and ethnicity, sorted by job level, department and other criteria.
    • Dashboard with KPIs such as trends for headcount, time off and attrition.
    • Custom reports to gain deeper insights and compare performance against industry benchmarks.
  • Mobile App: Available for iOS and Android, with geo-fencing for time management. Employees can request time off, while managers can receive notifications and view team PTO. 
  • Open API: Enables Namely to act as a system of record and facilitates single sign-on. Import data from other platforms, such as an applicant tracking system, learning management system or ERP. 
read more...
  • Talent Development: Provides combined functionality of talent onboarding, talent management and learning management solutions to cater to talent development requirements. 
  • Talent Acquisition: Helps create a streamlined hiring cycle, hire the right talent, engage fresh recruits and drive productivity from day one. 
  • Learning Management:  
    •  Helps provide a customized, personalized and engaging learning experience tailored to the skill and competency of individuals rather than the whole team. 
    •  Ease of access on all devices, along with an offline mode, ensures seamless and consistent access to content and courses. 
  • Talent Management: Personalized and intuitive tools help employees pursue career growth and development. Capabilities include performance management, 360-degree feedback, succession planning and compensation management. 
  • Performance Management: Provides comprehensive feedback and tools that make feedback actionable, constructive and insightful. Measures workforce productivity, progress and priorities in real time. 
  • Succession Planning: Enables talent managers to identify and assess skill gaps, build agile talent pools, and align employee success with business goals and objectives. 
  • Compensation Management: Simplifies and streamline compensation plans, and helps build competitive packages to attract and retain top recruits. Workflow automation and compensation management tools aid compliance with complex global policies. 
  • Workforce Management: Bundled payroll, benefits and expense management minimize time, cost and efforts while maximizing accuracy. Features include automated scheduling, time and attendance, absence management, and compliance. 
  • Applicant Tracking System: Includes real-time alerts and notifications for offer approvals, a unique dashboard and reports widgets, customizable requisitions, and a consolidated requisition workspace. 
  • Mobility: Provides access to tools and reporting capabilities at all times and from any location. The dashboard can be operated using a tablet, desktop, mobile app or a phone browser. 
  • Growth Edition: Caters to the needs of fast-growing small and medium-sized businesses. Includes webinars, instructor-led training, approvals, and additional learning resources that users can access and configure anytime. 
  • Extended Enterprise: Helps build a brand image, accelerate growth and drive new sources of potential revenue. Facilitates an enriched and optimized learning experience for distributors, partners and customers. 
  • Gamified and Collaborative Learning: Helps: 
    •  Assess and accelerate learning with gamification capabilities that include leaderboards, points, levels and badges. 
    •  Enhance employee engagement by identifying and rewarding the right learning behaviors. 
    •  Enrich the knowledge of new hires with collaborative learning, up-to-date content, feedback and social ratings. 
read more...

Product Ranking

#30

among all
HR Management Software

#23

among all
HR Management Software

Find out who the leaders are

User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 1299 reviews
Fair User Sentiment 132 reviews
81%
of users recommend this product

Namely has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 81% when considering 1299 user reviews from 6 recognized software review sites.

69%
of users recommend this product

SumTotal has a 'fair' User Satisfaction Rating of 69% when considering 132 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

4.8 (12)
n/a
3.9 (247)
3.2 (39)
4.16 (411)
2.7 (7)
4.2 (407)
n/a
4.3 (30)
4.0 (56)
3.7 (192)
2.9 (30)

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Role-Based Access: Available with a single click, this feature allows users to view, add and update information anytime, according to 100% of reviews mentioning it.
Customization: It’s possible to customize almost all functions and operations, as noted by all reviews of customization.
User-Friendly: As per 80% reviews on this element, a user-friendly interface makes navigation easy.
Regular Updates: All reviews on updates indicated that Namely releases updates regularly to improve its functions and capabilities.
Comprehensive Solutions: All users referring to this aspect appreciated the end-to-end HCM capabilities for HR, payroll and benefits.
Show more
Robust Tools: All reviews on this feature suggest that SumTotal provides a robust set of talent development and management, payroll, and workforce management solutions.
Effective Tracking: According to 80% of reviews on tracking, the software optimizes talent management by tracking development and career growth.
Self-Service: Managers and employees can access and complete training courses at their convenience, according to all reviews on self-service.
Show more
Time and Attendance: Adding manual data in the timesheets and attendance manager is a tedious task, according to 100% of reviews on this feature.
Customer Support: All reviews on this element indicated that support is slow and unresponsive.
Integration: There’s a lack of integration and communication between the payroll and HRIS modules, according to all reviews on integration.
Show more
Outdated Course Content: About 70% of reviews on course content reported that some modules aren’t frequently updated, resulting in an outdated learning experience.
Non-Intuitive Functions: Most features and functions aren’t intuitive, making it difficult to navigate, according to all reviews on this aspect.
Access to Reports: Accessing and pulling reports is extremely tedious and slow, according to 100% of reviews on reporting.
Customer Service: All reviews on customer support suggest that customer service is very slow and unresponsive.
Show more

Navigating the realm of HR software can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack, but Namely consistently emerges as a top contender, especially for mid-sized businesses. Users frequently highlight its user-friendly interface, affordability, and comprehensive features as standout qualities. Reviews often mention the intuitive design and ease of navigation, making it accessible even for those without extensive HR experience. The platform's affordability, without compromising on essential features, is another recurring theme in user feedback. Namely's wide range of features, encompassing payroll, benefits administration, talent management, and compliance tools, further solidifies its position as a versatile and valuable solution. When compared to competitors like Deluxe, Namely's broader scope of features becomes evident. While Deluxe primarily focuses on payroll processing, Namely offers a more holistic approach to HR management. This distinction is crucial for businesses seeking a comprehensive solution that extends beyond basic payroll functions. Namely's emphasis on employee engagement and its intuitive self-service portal are also differentiating factors that resonate with users. The platform empowers employees to manage their own information, benefits, and time-off requests, fostering a sense of ownership and streamlining HR processes. Considering its strengths and weaknesses, Namely appears to be an ideal fit for mid-sized businesses with 25 to 1,000 employees. Its scalability, comprehensive features, and focus on employee experience cater specifically to the needs of growing companies. Namely's ability to streamline HR processes, improve efficiency, and enhance employee engagement makes it a valuable asset for businesses looking to optimize their HR operations and cultivate a positive work environment.

Show more

SumTotal users paint a mixed picture, praising its robust functionality and mobile accessibility while critiquing its clunky interface and steep learning curve. Many laud its comprehensive suite, encompassing everything from onboarding to performance management, finding it a one-stop shop for HR needs. One user gushes, "It's like having a whole HR department in the cloud!" However, ease of use seems to be a major sticking point. Comments like "The interface feels outdated and unintuitive" and "Learning curve is a mountain, not a hill" pop up frequently. This is often contrasted with praise for competitors like Workday, lauded for its sleek design and user-friendliness. One user sums it up: "SumTotal has the depth, Workday has the polish." Mobile accessibility shines as a bright spot, with users appreciating the ability to manage tasks on the go. This stands out compared to some competitors, making SumTotal a good fit for companies with a mobile workforce. Ultimately, SumTotal seems to be a powerful tool for organizations willing to invest the time and effort in mastering its complexities. As one user puts it, "It's not perfect, but it's incredibly versatile. If you can handle the initial climb, the view from the top is pretty good."

Show more

Screenshots

Top Alternatives in HR Management Software


ADP Workforce Now

BambooHR

Cornerstone OnDemand

Dayforce

Infor HCM

Justworks

Oracle HCM Cloud

Paycom

Paycor

PDS Vista

Rippling

SuccessFactors

Talentsoft

TriNet

UKG Dimensions

UKG Pro

Workable

Workday HCM

Related Categories

Head-to-Head Comparison

WE DISTILL IT INTO REAL REQUIREMENTS, COMPARISON REPORTS, PRICE GUIDES and more...

Compare products
Comparison Report
Just drag this link to the bookmark bar.
?
Table settings